Murphy's tale is tragic, his downfall fueled by ambition, greed, lies, and theft. He is waiting for sentencing, and faces 5 years in jail. He lied to nearly everyone involved except his own son; lied to landowners, volunteers, coworkers, paleontologists, and the authorities.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Nate Murphy continues to do bad science. In March of 2013, the Dino Lab in Billings, MT was the site of a little Homeland Security sting operation. They had been tipped off he had Chinese/Mongolian fossils. They found two. They were confiscated. It seemed a repeat of his previous offense was forthcoming. This time he paid for a better attorney (well, he has yet to pay. They threatened harrasment and Homeland backed off. He has yet to pay his original attorney, because the case was lost. Such a lovely man. Only half of what he says is truthful.

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About the Coastal Paleontologist

I am a Ph.D. student in the Geology program at the University of Otago, New Zealand, working with R. Ewan Fordyce on Oligocene fossil cetaceans from the South Island. My dissertation research focuses on eomysticetid baleen whales (the earliest known toothless baleen whales), and my project will involve description, phylogenetic analysis, and assessing their feeding ecology. I received my master's degree in May 2011 from Montana State University, where I studied the taphonomy of late Neogene marine vertebrates from the Purisima Formation of Northern California. I am currently involved in studying fossil marine mammals from the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene of California and Oregon, and am a Research Associate of the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UC Berkeley).